New Haven Independent

Posted by: WOW | March 2, 2009 3:46 PM

Lets wake up for a second people. Speeders. Look at the pictures and statements in this story. First a parent said they try to exit and enter curbside in to the vehicle. Well you should always enter and exit your vehicle with your childs safety first. How many parents cross the street with child in tow. Lazy, and late for work I guess. If your not in a cross walk you are breaking the law, and so is the speeder for speeding. Why play dodge ball with a vehicle, WoW.

Posted by: Truth in Advertising | March 2, 2009 3:46 PM

75% of all the parents whose kids attend the pre-school are suburban folks that work in New Haven and play in New Haven but pay no taxes and complain the loudest and have the biggest demands!

My guess is that they are also culprits in the speeding when they are in a rush to drop their kids off in the morning.

NHI needs to FOIA the petition to see how many are New Haven residents on this petition.

Posted by: anon | March 2, 2009 3:56 PM

The problem is that the street is designed for speeding vehicles, not for the hood's health or safety.

Until you actually design the street to carry traffic at 20mph nothing will change. People will continue to be afraid to come out, chat with their neighbors and amble through their neighborhood. Their kids will continue to stay indoors playing video games. We'll likely see more traffic deaths - 12 people were killed in crashes in New Haven in 2008, all of them innocent victims of bad transportation policy.

This problem is even worse in other parts of the city, like Sea Street & Howard Avenue. Up on Kimberly Avenue, students at the school recently got out speed guns and clocked trucks and school buses speeding by at 50+MPH. How do you think that makes the kids feel about their neighborhood?

Go for a drive and compare Kimberly Ave with towns in Fairfield County, where speed humps abound and speed limits are posted at 15 MPH, along with bright yellow signs telling you to stop for pedestrians. Is it any wonder why kids in those towns are so much healthier?

Unfortunately, you can't modify people's behavior by putting up signs or parking a cop there once a year. If it looks like a highway, you will drive it like a highway. Giving out a ton more traffic tickets citywide is a good idea, because it creates the perception that the streets are more lawful, but it is an expensive proposition in the long term.

I hear there is a new committee that is supposed to issue design guidelines at some point. Can that project be fast tracked by Mayor DeStefano? Ticket drivers like mad for now, but in the long term, create streets that people enjoy. It will bring our communities together and it's a very strategic investment from a cost perspective - a few hundred dollars vs. someone's life.

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | March 2, 2009 5:03 PM

If you thought Prospect Street is dangerous, wait till the new Hooker School opens up on Whitney Ave!

Posted by: Esbe | March 2, 2009 5:16 PM

75% of all the parents whose kids attend the pre-school are suburban folks

And 62.567% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Funny how both of the women quoted in the story appear in whitepages.com as having New Haven addresses. You might check out the property taxes on those addresses and report back if you think these good folks are free-loaders.

Posted by: Patrick | March 2, 2009 6:06 PM

Some of the previous commentators can just cry me a big ole river.

I worked at this school for three years and this article is spot on. This is a real issue not simply for the preschool, but for the residents in the neighborhood--most of whom have young children. So let's offer kudos to Calvin Hill Day Care for taking on a neighborhood issue that effects more than just their "suburban" parents.

Fact: it is a terrifying prospect to take children for class field trips down the hill (to Edgerton Park) because of every detail mentioned above. Wow's comment is just inane, since the parents she or he is critiquing are parents of former students of mine--and I personally know them to be superb models of parental care and concern. As for crossing the street--you HAVE to do this many days because the curbside parking is full. Every other spot is taken up by parents arriving at the exact same drop-off time or by area residents. Obviously if a parent had a choice, he or she would do everything curbside.

As for being New Haven residents and paying taxes there... I'm sorry, but it's kind of moot to me. Dead preschool kids anywhere in the city of New Haven reflects poorly on New Haven. Period. Hopefully this article inspires caregivers at other area preschools to critique the traffic patterns near their own schools--and demand the attention they deserve. Especially at less economically-advantaged Head Starts; though using "economically advantaged" in the context of early childhood education is a bit hilarious since this absolutely vital field is so terribly underfunded public OR private.

So grow up people. No one's asking for the city to pay for gold-leafed toilet paper for public bathrooms. We're talking safety for young children in this particular neighborhood. Having lived and worked in this neighborhood for three years, and almost getting hit multiple occasions myself (AT THE CROSSWALK), I have to assert that this article is important and truthful in most respects.

Posted by: William Kurtz | March 2, 2009 7:34 PM

Of course, let's not overlook the obvious: none of this would be a problem if people would, in general, just slow down and pay attention to their driving. But of course that might entail hanging up the cell phone, putting away the Bluetooth earpiece, turning off the DVD, ignoring the GPS and making your hungry baby wait for a couple of minutes.

William Saletan said it perfectly in Slate earlier today: we seem to have decided that driving is a background activity and paying attention to the road can take second, third, or fourth place to everything else.

Posted by: lance | March 2, 2009 8:25 PM

I thought the challenge of running across the street without getting clobbered was the reason they named it the calvin hill school in the first place.

Posted by: C.Hill parent | March 2, 2009 9:20 PM

Both of my kids go to C.Hill, which means regardless of which side I park on, one gets out on the street side. It is terrifying, especially when it's icy out.

We do live in New Haven, by the way, and so do the majority of the other parents.

Posted by: anon | March 2, 2009 10:46 PM

I agree, Fedup - Whitney Avenue is a disaster. Maybe it can be fixed in time for the Hooker School's opening?

Cars speed through Whitney at 50 miles per hour and the way the street is designed, extra-wide with no pedestrian median/refuge in the center, is a "perfect recipe" for injuries and fatalities every month. In fact, there are people hit on that street on a regular basis, some have even been reported in this newspaper.

Posted by: I FEAR THEM TOO | March 3, 2009 9:21 AM

I've seen lots of cops sitting in parking lots, but I've never seen one parked on a New Haven side street scouting for speeders.

I fear speeders too. My street has been nice and quiet since the snow fell. The Yale shuttle, which used to fly down my street at probably 50mph now goes slow. But apparently the drivers have been instructed to keep it in first gear. So now, instead of flying down the street at 50mph, they creep up the street in first gear with their engines screaming at 15,000rpm. Which is worse? Depends on whether you're walking or riding up the street, or trying to sleep.

Posted by: sjbj | March 3, 2009 10:18 AM

Don't you hate mongers ever get sick of listening to yourselves?! We are talking here about keeping kids safe--WHO CARES where they come from? We need traffic enforcement all over this city. EVERY DAY, I see folks running red lights. If you do anything less than 40 mi per hour on city streets, some moron is riding up on your bumper. I've had people blow around me on Whitney Ave, driving into oncoming traffic, because I wasn't going 55 mi per hour. Everyone is in a big hurry and drive like they are the only one on the road.

Posted by: JSteen | March 3, 2009 12:03 PM

I'm happy to see that someone is doing research before suggesting traffic calming measures. One website -

stopspeeders.org

- has a link to over a dozen studies related to traffic calming and there are some surprising results.

As mentioned, it turns out that stop signs often INCREASE traffic speeds. And did you know that crosswalks may actually INCREASE pedestrian accidents? Studies also show that speed humps can increase traffic noise, impede emergency vehicles and endanger bicyclists and the impaired. There is a reason why a growing number of communities across the country are TEARING OUT these antiquated traffic calming devices.

According to several recent studies, radar speedcheck signs (those devices that tell passing drivers how fast they are going) can be the most effective (and cost effective) means for slowing traffic - particularly around school zones and neighborhood streets. I like them because they don't result in a ticket and yet are apparently highly effective.

Increased patrolling also seems to be effective - at least while the traffic officer is visibly monitoring the area.

Let's consider all of the options before we ac

Posted by: norton street | March 3, 2009 12:53 PM

jsteen, in my experience people speed up when they see the radar signs, they like to see if they can make it flash red.

people just need to stop using cars for every trip they make. one city bus can replace 30+cars on the road. get your children out of your cars and onto public transportation (if young like in this case, ride with them) they will be around all different kinds of people, they will grow up to be much more social and happy.

ideally you live with in walking distance of work, shopping and schools, but if not just take a bus. for vacations, rent a car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/business/worldbusiness/12cars.html?_r=1

an affordable car available for the people of india and china. thats half the worlds population with access to automobiles, is that going to increase or decrease the amount of oil in the world, and is it going to increase or decrease the price? eventually we will run out of oil, wouldnt it be nice if we could only use oil for necessities like growing food and heating and powering homes, instead of using it to go pick up a half gallon of milk and a candy bar.

Posted by: anon | March 3, 2009 2:21 PM

Traffic calming is more or less effective based on the specific situation - you can't generalize. You need a traffic engineer.

In many cases, these measures have been shown to be incredibly effective. Go visit cities that have installed good traffic calming and you'll see cars traveling at top speeds of 15 miles per hour, 5 year olds playing in the middle of the street, and accident rates a tiny fraction of what they are in the U.S. When I see people doing 60 in front of my house, boy do I wish I lived in a community like that.

Also, traffic calming (also known as designing streets that contribute to the community, not streets that destroy it) is more than speed bumps - it comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.